First "full-length" course - looking for feedback
Jun 01, 2011
Over the last year I have been so impressed with the Articulate Community. It was instrumental in my choosing Articulate over other rapid e-learning options.
While I have done a few short (7 minutes or less) courses and many quizzes, this is my first try at a 20+ minute offering. It has been in the works since August.
My e-learning mentor, Bruce Graham, has given me some suggestions, but I would also appreciate hearing from others about how I can improve this course or things to consider for my next one (if there IS a next one that I do myself 
)
By the way - thanks to the community member (I can't remember if it was Tom Kuhlman or if he just shared it in his blog) who created the template I used for this course.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18122369/Special%20Order%20Change%20Requests/player.html
4 Replies
Hi Beth,
This is the perfect course for Tom's template - great choice on your part! I like your choice of slide background color, but I do have a question. Do you have the slide shadow feature turned on? It looks like there's a shadow or 3D features on the slide itself that I think detracts from the bold color beneath it... it's just a matter aesthetics, but I think I'd prefer it plain.
One thing I noticed from an interactivity perspective is that all of your slides appear to be auto advancing, other than one of the Engage interactions. I think it's pretty effective since what you're doing is relatively linear subject matter. I did notice, however, that it caused a problem on the 5 Bold Steps slide. You ask the learner to select one of the steps, but the slide auto advances. It's a quick fix, luckily!
Teaching a computer system can be a very difficult feat, and I think you did a really nice job incorporating video screen captures so that learners can see you navigate within the system. I did notice that the slide background on the slides with video screen captures is different than the slides before them, and I think it'd be more cohesive if they looked just like the slide before them. That way, before the Camtasia/Screenr piece starts, you don't see a completely different slide for a second or two. I think it will help the visual flow.
Lastly, I noticed that sometimes the size of similar objects was not consistent - the envelopes going down the left hand side of the screen, text boxes used to highlight information, etc. An easy way to make these shapes consistent is to simply copy and paste the item rather than create a new one, then change the text. Making sure these small details are consistent will really take your course over the top and make it look uber professional.
Oh, and PS, I was really impressed by the quality of your audio. There were a few start and stop clicks here and there, but for the most part I couldn't hear any background noise at all... and that's something I have a particularly hard time with. Great job with that!
Hope those comments are helpful!
Sarah - thanks so much!
I would love some help with the "same size" objects. That is what I did - and I used master slides as commonly recommended by Tom Kuhlman. However, Articulate seems to do something to them when it renders the slides?? They look good in the base PPT.
Thanks again!
Beth
Hi Beth, I'm curious how you used dropbox to share the presentation in the browser, I also would like to share my presentation in the works for some feed back but am not sure how to use dropbox to do so.
Cheers!
P.S.
Great course!
Assuming you have a Dropbox account, there is a Public folder automatically created by Dropbox.
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